Julie’s Bicycle on Tuesday launched its new Sustainable Production Guide at the first of their autumn events on Sustainable Design in the Arts to 50 arts professionals.

Speakers Donyale Werle, Tanja Beer and Sam Collins led the debate on the role designers and production managers can play in making arts practice more environmentally sustainable. Hosted by the Young Vic, the panel addressed an audience of London and UK based arts professionals from across theatre, opera, visual arts, dance and education.

After her success at World Stage Design 2013, Donyale Werle spoke about her experiences designing and constructing shows sustainably on Broadway, and the need to the normalise sustainable practices and work with current networks and suppliers to create change. Tanja Beer presented her research into eco-design principles and went on to explain her “Living Theatre” project as an example of how work can be designed to engage and enrich audiences, and leave a positive environmental and social legacy.

Sam Collins offered a different perspective, highlighting the potential for sustainably-designed artwork to create the context for honest and open discussions about waste and carbon emissions within the industry, particularly with regards to touring shows. He used the striking example of adding a GPS device to packing crates transporting Cape Farewell’s U-n-f-o-l-d exhibition to track their journey around the world. This was followed by a 50 minute discussion with the audience covering topics of new materials, the use of toxic treatments and contending with fire regulations, waste management, and the role of artistic vision in driving the cultural shift towards a more environmentally sustainable arts sector.

The event also included the launch of Julie’s Bicycle’s new Sustainable Production Guide. Available from today for free download the guide has been developed with a community of production professionals, and offers comprehensive guidance on how to make theatre more sustainable at every stage in the production process.

Arts Manager Sholeh Johnston said, “The Sustainable Production Guide is the result of a collective effort within the theatre industry to understand and improve the environmental sustainability of production. It showcases best practice developed to date, links to key resources, and provides practical actions for directors, production managers, set designers and builders, costume makers, cast, marketeers and others involved with making great art happen. The guide is both a distillation of Julie’s Bicycle’s research to date, and an invitation to join an exciting community of practitioners pioneering new ways of working in line with environmental, economic, and technological drivers. We want to keep the conversation going, and continue to shout about the fantastic work being developed.”

Set designer Sandra Goldmark is starting up a new sustainability project with her husband, Michael Banta, a production manager and technical director, along with several theatre colleagues. They are opening a 4 week Pop-Up Repair shop in northern Manhattan, this June. The shop is a challenge to the cycle of use-and-discard consumer goods, and will be staffed by theatre artists. This experimental project is asking the question: can we as theatre artists create social change, not only with the theatre that we make, but with the way we make theatre – by hand.

Last week co-founder of Culture Futures Peter Head gave his speech in connection with the launch of the student competition ‘Co-creating Sustainable Solutions for the Future’, 14 September. The launch was arranged by Cultures Futures Club, CBS Goes Green and the Danish Cultural Institute as a part of ‘India Today – Copenhagen Tomorrow’. Read
more about the competition at http://cocreatenow.org/competition/

Listen to Peter Head sharing some of his experiences concerning co-creating sustainable solutions with students at Copenhagen Business School – examples for inspiration in relation to the competition

Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.

The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.

Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society.Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures

Tom Chivers – Cape Farewell’s Climate Poet-in-Residence

Art and climate change organisation Cape Farewell is launching ADRIFT – an interrogation of climate as culture, devised by Cape Farewell’s poet in residence, Tom Chivers (in London, UK). They invite the public for a drink, performance and short film, as Tom Chivers maps the natural territories written into urban space. Free admission.

“Discover what’s hidden underneath the streets and find out what an ‘urban pilgrimage’ is. Join us in the Main Space at Rich Mix from 6.30pm on Friday 5th October. Appearing with the director of Cape Farewell, artist and photographer, David Buckland, Tom will be presenting ongoing research and new writing. Over the next 12 months, follow ADRIFT at capefarewell.com/adrift as Tom undertakes a range of mixed-media investigations: text work, live performance, debate and collaborations with other artists, writers, and poets. ADRIFT builds towards the presentation of a major new poetic project, in Spring 2013, supported by a series of live events across East London.”

Tom Chivers’ commission is launched as part of Cape Farewell’s new series of Urban Interventions. This will include the summer launch of SWITCH, a youth inquiry into poetics, culture, migration and climate.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

Energising Culture: JB’s Latest Guide

Yesterday saw the launch of our latest guide, Energising Culture, the first in a two-part guide on future energy strategies for cultural buildings, published in partnership with The Theatres Trust and Arts Council England.

Energising Culture aims to equip the leaders of cultural buildings with an understanding of the core issues around energy demand and supply, and implications for operational and investment decision-making. It makes the case for energy as a business-critical issue.

The guide covers practical and operational interventions, the current range of technological, compliancy and financial incentives, sources of funding and investment models available.

It also provides case study examples of innovative and bold responses to the energy challenge from the cultural sector.

This year’s summer session of the Nordic Summer University will take place on July 28th – August 2nd, in Denmark, at Brandtbjerg Højskole near Vejle. The NSU is organized in “study/reflection circles”, working with a theme for 3 years. This is the last session of circle/kreds 2 around the theme of transculturality. The work of the circle has led to a published anthology in 2010, Learning from the Other, and upcoming, the anthology Learning from nowhere – the becoming of culture. This last session will prepare the field to a possible new circle, moving from taking the perspective of ”Learning from the future” (2013-2015). This shift will focus then on the theme of cultures of sustainability or transculturality from an uncertain future.

Culture will play a decisive role in defining the way humanity approaches the meta- or mega-issue of sustainability. It is often said that we actually possess the technological knowledge to come out of the critical situation that the world is heading into.

Innumerable alliances are forming that acknowledge the urgency of the problem, from all thinkable angles of societies.

The invitation is for all interested in the themes (and crossing of themes) of culture, interculturality, transculturality, sustainability, climate change, civic participation, education, and philosophy, to contribute to our last session in circle 2 (and maybe the pre-launch of a new circle). Abstracts can be proposed along the themes of

Discussions of issues of policy and political implications of the field.

..or whatever creative cross-fertilization you may be working with.

Practicalities

The summer session is coordinated by Johannes Servan, University of Bergen (Johannes [dot] Servan [at] fof [dot] uib [dot] no), and Oleg Koefoed, Cultura21 Nordic and Roskilde University (oleg [at] cultura21 [dot] dk). Please send your abstract (no more than 200 words) by June 1st at the latest, to one of the coordinators.

They accept abstracts in all Nordic languages, (or in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German); presentations can be held in English, as well as in Nordic languages (although some languages might call more for translation than others). One or more authors can hand in an abstract and/or present together.

Preliminary program is expected around June 8th. If you want to participate without presenting, registration is possible until June 15th. Whether presenting or not, you must register your participation via the NSU-website. Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the web page. Registration is open from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration. You are not fully registered before payment has been accepted. Visit www.nsuweb.net for more information and for the story around the Nordic Summer University and Brandtbjerg Højskole. The preliminary program will be published on www.nsuweb.net. Sign up for the newsletter to get the necessary information and deadlines.

Arrival: 27th of July during the day.

Departure: the 3rd August in the morning

Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the webpage. Registration is from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration.

Participant from the Nordic and Baltic Countries will receive travel refund.

Prices for participation, including meals and lodging, are:

Adult in single room: 5000 SEK

Adult in single room: 5500 SEK

Adult in two bed room: 3500 SEK

Child, 3-11 years: 1100 SEK

Child, 12-15 years: 2200 SEK

Student in two bed room: 1750 SEK

Students, who receive student discount, are expected to help the organizers with two-three hours work during the week. Application for student discount is done by registration. Initially, two spaces pr. Nordic country are offered. The offer does not apply to ph.d. students.

Ph.d. students can receive a certificate of participation. Participants can receive up to 5 ETCS points. As a participant you can get a discount on all publications from Aarhus University Press and a special discount on NSU’s own publications. Your order should be placed by registration to the summer session.

Although historically a rite of passage for commercial fishing boats only, the annual Blessing of the Fleet on Clear Lake channel now includes both work boats and pleasure boats alike.

“The Blessing of the Fleet is an annual event that is practiced in fishing communities world-wide. As a genre, these blessings share several common traits: one or more priests perform the actual blessing; fishermen gather in their newly outfitted boats to receive the blessing; and family members unite in making whatever preparations are dictated by local tradition.”

– Betsy Gordon from her essay “Decorating for the Shrimp Fleet Blessing: Chauvin, Louisiana” in the 1991 issue of Louisiana Folklife Miscellany

Over a year ago, as we planned Shrimp Boat Projects, we anticipated the launch of our boat to coincide with the start of the Texas bay shrimping season and the annual Blessing of the Fleet on Clear Lake channel, a traditional ceremony marking the beginning of the season on the east side of Galveston Bay. Well, the bay shrimping season is now about a month underway in Texas and unfortunately we are still getting out boat ready for prime-time. Fortunately, our disappointment has been tempered by a growing eagerness to start shrimping as soon as possible. The boat is definitely looking better and better each day, so we should be shifting gears soon.

The Blessing of the Fleet happened on May 1st and although we couldn’t participate in this consummate public spectacle, we could watch it among the many folks leaning on the railings at the Kemah Boardwalk. Oddly enough, and we can only admit this in hindsight, our inability to participate may have actually been a blessing in disguise. As casual bystanders to the event, we gained the critical distance to consider how dramatically this event has changed in its history and whether its cultural value is even still relevant to the bay shrimping profession.

We considered the evolution of the event as it relates to the the towns of Kemah and Seabrook which flank the channel where the blessing happens. In many ways, the evolution of this event mirrors the evolution of this place, from working waterfront to leisure waterfront, and from a varied assemblage of waterfront businesses owned by multiple individuals, to a singular destination owned by a single corporation. The event is still organized by the City of Kemah, but the event is staged on the privately owned Kemah Boardwalk, a mammoth-sized theme park owned and managed by Landry’s Restaurants, Inc., a Houston-based company. Although this public-private partnership has its benefits (the boardwalk makes for easy and accessible viewing of the event), it also insures that the Blessing of Fleet is competing with several other events happening in close proximity. This year, the actual blessing was drowned out by the sounds of a party band playing Top 40 tunes for another audience nearby. Other signs of the event’s evolution are a dramatic shift in the participation of the shrimp boats, the fleet around which the event was initially conceived. Today, the Fleet that gets blessed is a varied group of work boats and pleasure boats, implying that the blessing itself has less to do with risks and perils of commercial fishing and more to do with the everyday hazards of boating in general.

From our perspective, it’s impossible to not see the evolution of the event as also a reflection of the bay shrimping profession itself. The small number of bay shrimp boats participating in the event are now not only getting paid to participate (authenticity is apparently not cheap) but also representing a profession on Galveston Bay that has diminished is size dramatically over the history of the event. For better or worse, the parade of boats that signified this year’s Blessing of the Fleet was actually one of the most graphic signs of the demise of an industry, the shifting of cultures and economies in this region, and a reminder of the reciprocal relationship between place and culture.

In the end, we feel ok to have not participated in this year’s Blessing of the Fleet. While we could certainly use all of the blessing we can get, we’ll hold out for a Blessing of the Fleet that renews the original significance of the event as a response to the fleet of working shrimp boats on Galveston Bay. What would this event look like? It’s simple: culture and consequence. This future event would restore the Blessing’s original cultural value by giving form to a fleet of working shrimpers on Galveston Bay that are diverse and not a monolithic community. It would also reaffirm the consequence of the event by better acknowledging the real risks and sacrifices made by working shrimpers and other fishermen alike. Could this type of event be re-realized? We think it could, but to do so, it will probably need to forsake the Kemah Boardwalk and embrace one of the few remaining places on Galveston Bay that still maintain a connection to the bay shrimping profession.

It’s a bit last minute but we are being gifted for use the new multi-multi-million dollar club, The Belasco www.thebelasco.com in downtown LA for the night of June 3rd. They club will open their doors to us with all staff for the evening for free. We get 100% of the door!

If you have ever wanted to contribute more to Green Wave, here’s your chance! Just show up & BRING EVERYONE YOU KNOW! Reach out to people in your office that you have always thought of inviting. Make it a pseudo work party for a great cause. We can fit everyone -it’s a giant club! Maybe we can create a competition -who can get the most people and help save the world ;)

Help us make this a special night! If you have any ideas, I am open -just email or call. Let’s party at a crazy awesome club and make a difference in the world!

Money from the door/ ticket sales and a portion of bottle service for the evening will go to EMA and our Million Acre Initiative. Here is more info on the event.

On June 3rd, 2011 we come together in support of the Electronic Music Alliance (EMA Global) which is a project of Green Wave non-profit organization to celebrate leaders in our community, our DJ’s, Performers, Promoters, and all the People who create positive change in the world.

We are proud to be hosted on this evening by the world-class multi-purpose event and entertainment complex, The Belasco Theater (http://www.thebelasco.com/) which is also making its grand debut. A relic of 1920’s Los Angeles, The Belasco recently underwent a $12 million dollar renovation and has the largest sound system in Southern California (which we can’t wait to hear!)

100% of the proceeds of the door will benefit EMA and with every ticket that is purchased, you will become a special member of our alliance.

Tickets are available through Groove Tickets at $10 for a limited time:

Special Guests and Honorees:

Ken Jordan of The Crystal Method & DJ Rap (together for the first time)

Static Revenger

Duo Sets by:

DJ Eva & DJ Oscure

DJ Mike Teez & DJ Jim Carson

+More TBA!

The Electronic Music Alliance Official Launch event is put together by a handful of amazing individuals and companies that are donating their time and services to the cause and we’re really grateful for their support and services. Thank you from EMA and Green Wave!

There are at least three research networks looking at environmental and cultural issues currently meeting in programmes of workshops.

CORE, the research network on Creative Research and the Environment, was launched last week in the Art Space Nature rooms at Edinburgh College of Art. This network spans fine art and landscape architecture and is linked with a larger research project on Antarctic Earth Sciences. Post on launch.

Values of Environmental Writing Research Network takes its cue from Robert Macfarlane’s 2009 comment, “Many of the new activists are young, and a significant number are recent graduates, emerging from universities across Britain and moving immediately into environmental action. It would be fascinating to know what literary works have shaped the message and medium of their politics…”

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

Theatres Trust will be profiling the Ecovenue project, and all its participants at PLASA 2010 in The Theatres Trust’s very own ‘Ecovenue’ on Stand 2-M28 at Earl’s Court, showcasing the environmental efficiency practices being implemented across the London venues involved with the project. In addition to profiling the venues, the Ecovenue area in Earls Court 2 will also feature technologies designed to rationalise the environmental footprint of theatres.

As part of this initiative, The Theatres Trust will launch its first ‘People’s Choice’ award for sustainable theatrical products to complement the existing PLASA Innovation Award for Environmentally-focused products.

All exhibiting manufacturers at PLASA 2010 are invited, as part of an open call for entries, to put forward products to be considered for this Theatres Trust award. The Theatres Trust will then select those that represent either a significant step forward in the resource efficiency of an existing product or a new product intended to contribute to the resource efficiency of a theatre to be featured in the area.

Visitors to PLASA 2010 will be able to vote on the product they feel best represents progression towards sustainability, while also learning about the advice that the Ecovenue participants are receiving and the experiences of the 24 already signed up to the project.